So you want your home sold quickly huh? Properly preparing for the sale can mean the difference between a home that sells for or near full price, and one that sits around for months.

Remember, it’s easy to feel attached to your Long Island house or any other house. You have memories and sentiment that could influence your objectivity. It’s best to remove this from the process, and try your best to view things from a buyer’s perspective.

All the statistics and logic in the world will matter very little if your potential buyer’s don’t “feel” good when they walk through the house. These potential buyers will likely have a large list of homes to go see. How will yours stand out? You don’t want to blend in with all the others do you? Of course not, so here’s what we’re going to do.

Your goal is to make the home appear warm and inviting. To accomplish this, it needs to appear well maintained, organized and clean. Sometimes this will involve a bit of “bootstrapping” such as painting, deep cleaning, and even getting rid of old carpet.

You will also want to consider the fact that many buyers will not even bother looking further into a home that does not emit that all important “curb appeal.” To put it bluntly, if the home is ugly on the outside, they assume the inside is the same.

Is the lawn well manicured? Are there oil spots in the driveway? How about bushes, shrubs and weeds? Look at the Long Island house exterior from top to bottom? (Many seem to forget this) The gutters are they cleaned out, or are they growing weeds and collecting leaves?

Even seemingly minor details such as the condition of the mailbox can make a difference. Take a trip around the exterior with some cleaning solution and remove stains, handprints and more from the exterior door, mailbox, and even the window sills if need be.

If the current exterior paint is fading or peeling, you may wish to give a complete paint job some consideration. If you have the time or resources, a repaint can go a long way towards breathing new life into the curb appeal of your home.

You never know when a prospective buyer will drive by for a quick glance, or knock on the door unexpected. Preparation is key if you wish to show your home in the best possible light.

Inside Your Home

While we’re not aiming for a sterile hospital-like environment, a clean home is an absolute must. This means walking through each room thoroughly to hunt down even the smallest amounts of dust, grime, or stains.

If it’s in the room, clean it! Your potential buyers will be putting your home under the figurative microscope, and chances are good that they will notice things you have missed. Yes, I know that no one wants to hear this, but include your basement and garage on this list as well. If the room exists, your guests will want to see it, rate it, and include it in their decision-making process.

Now is the time to get rid of anything that does not belong, or will not be moving with you. Clean and open environments will always sell better than dirty and cramped spaces.

Attack your walls with touchup paint if needed, or even consider a fresh coat of paint. Remember to stick with colors that are easy to match, instead of your own personal preferences. (Lighter colors can make a room look larger and more open)

Give your closets the same treatment as the rest of your rooms. You will find that what may seem unimportant to you, such as a closet for example, can be a make or break proposition for your buyer.

While making your way through each room, you should also give some attention to your heating vents. These often ignored areas can accumulate quite an impressive collection of dirt, grime and pet hair. Remove and clean these vents whenever possible. It may be a good idea to replace your filters at this time so you don’t forget. (This can contribute to a cleaner smelling home.)

Once you’ve completed the removal of unwanted items, and the dusting of hard to reach areas, you can finally turn your attention to the carpet. If it’s been a while, deep cleaning is likely in order. If the carpet looks worn, it might even be worth the cost to replace it.

View this as your opportunity to stand out and be remembered over other Long Island houses or in your neighborhood. One little trick we’ve picked up over the years is to install high intensity bulbs wherever possible. You will want to make certain the fixtures allow these types of bulbs of course.
While you don’t want to go overboard, the extra light from a brighter bulb can make a room more inviting, larger, and “homey.”

If you have pets, or if someone in your household smokes, now is the time to turn your attention to potential odors that can build up over time. Sure, no one wants to believe that they have a “smelly house.” But please consider that all homes will have their own characteristic smells and/or odors.

Smells that a smoker or pet owner may have grown used to may stand out like a sore thumb to a non-smoker, or non-pet owner. Do everything in your power to keep your home smelling both clean, and fresh. Items such as carpet, drapes, and even furniture can become saturated with a certain smell or odor.

A thorough deep cleaning should help minimize this effect. When you know guests are on the way for a walkthrough, or an open house is near, why not pop a fresh batch of cookies in the oven to fill the home with a welcome aroma?

Once the cleaning has been done, it would be best to restrict all smoking to outside so that all of your hard work is not wasted. Likewise, if you have a friend or family member who owes you a favor, check if he/she would be willing to keep the pet for the duration of the selling process.

This would assure that the home smells fresh and that the walkthroughs are pleasant. It’s not uncommon for a potential buyer to cut their viewing short due to a noisy pet. You are in a tough environment for Long Island houses or houses throughout the country. These tips should help sell your house.

This is the first of a two part article on marketing your home if you are selling it yourself. In marketing, it is important to have your home stand out from other Long Island houses or in any neighborhood. So what are you trying to sell here? A house right? You are not just selling a home. What may be ‘old news’ to you may be the perfect opportunity for someone else. A home represents shelter, happiness, family, security and lifestyle. Try to think like your potential buyer. What will they see when viewing this property?

What schools are in the area? What conveniences are nearby? How close is the fire department? These are all questions that are likely to pop into the minds of those considering your home. It is only natural to seek the best features and convenience for the best price. The question you have to answer is: “Am I showing my house as the best possible value?”

In other words, what exactly are you doing to market your home? How many people are aware that your home is up for sale? Furthermore, how many are seeing your home for the great value it is? Great marketing gets people excited, motivated, and ready to take action. What are your plans for accomplishing this?

Let’s take a few moments to review what the average seller does to market his/her home for sale by owner:
1 – Places a sign in the yard-discussed in this article
2 – Pays for a small classified ad in the newspaper-discussed in this article
3 – Adds a picture of the home for sale to a FSBO website-discussed in part two
4. Hold an occassional open house

There you have it. This is how the average home seller tries to sell his/her home. As you can see, there is not much proactive selling going on here, and unless someone happens to be looking very closely for a home within this very specific region, these ads and signs are very likely to be overlooked by a large majority of qualified buyers.

Even when potential buyers do view the property for sale, the marketing materials (Typically this means flyers) used by the seller do not present the home in the best possible light.
So how can you avoid these mistakes? Let’s review your options 1 step at a time:

1. Yard Signs

Yard signs are a basic yet essential form of advertising. Your sign is the 1 piece of advertising that will stand out in your front lawn 24 hours a day yelling “Hey! Look at me! I’m for sale!”

What sort of image would you like to convey? Don’t cut corners here and go for the cheapest sign you can find. A flimsy and cheap looking sign can send the wrong message. No, this does not mean you have pay through the nose for the most expensive sign around, but spend a few extra dollars for a sturdy sign that will not fall apart, or snap in half on a windy day. This is saying my house is different from other Long Island houses.

2. Flyers and Brochures

A flyer or brochure can serve as your silent salesman after the prospect has left your home. Many sellers will put in the least amount of work and hand this out to their visitors, or place them within the “info box” out front.

If your prospective buyer has looked at many homes for the day, then you will likely be facing some competition from other Long Island houses. So the question is, how good of a selling job will your flyer do once the buyer has returned home?

Start with a visually appealing format. This means that your pictures should be large and easy to see, but not too large. Keep in mind that pictures that look good on your PC monitor may not look quite as sharp and crisp once printed.

Include the most important and relevant information regarding your home in an easy to read format. Bullet points can help the reader to quickly scan the front page for relevant data. Avoid large paragraphs and small font. I prefer to use size 14 size font, and when appropriate larger. (Headlines for instance)

When you’re ready to stand out from your competition or other Long Island houses, begin making a list of desirable facts and features of the surrounding area. For example:

- Local schools and/or ratings
- Shopping malls
- Proximity to highways and main roads
- Recreation
- Popular employment

Additional information such as this can make a difference. It’s easy for buyers to forget or confuse these facts after looking at multiple homes. Make this information readily available, and you will be selling far more effectively.

It would also be wise to include financial information on the flyer such as asking price, down-payment required and monthly loan payments. If you visit with a loan officer ahead of time (I can help you with this) – special financing offers can be added that will appeal to a broader range of buyers.

Final asking price becomes less of an issue when easy to handle monthly payments are available. In other words, you might experience less haggling if you can present attractive financing options. (Always make sure the financing options displayed are truly available, and the proper disclaimers are in place. It is important to get a professional to prepare this section for you)

You’re almost done! Next, I would like to suggest that you include your yearly average utility payments, items included in the sale (Such as appliances, or any extras), and a map with directions. If the home is hard to find, or if too much legwork is needed to hunt down directions, many will not bother.

Contact information would also be ideal. In the end, I would suggest you prepare a one single page flyer, and then the multi-page report we just discussed.

The single page variant can be placed in the information box for those driving by, while the multi-page report is perfect to hand out at open houses, or to send to friends and family. The key here is to avoid rushing the flyer. You want a clean, informative, and easy to read structure to the flyer.

If the flyer does not present well, it can impact your buyers’ opinion. I’ve seen this happen too many times, and I would hate for this to happen to you. If you find the design process difficult you can purchase a computer program to help. Many flyer or design programs are available for a reasonable cost.

The more eyes that view your flyers, the quicker you will sell your home. Why not give out extra copies to your friends and family to help you distribute. Bulletin boards, local relocation offices, even grocery store information boards usually allow flyers to be hung.

Save a digital copy and email it to everyone in your address book, asking to forward it to anyone they know who may be in the market for a new home. In the next article I will discuss other techniques available to have your home stand out from other Long Island houses.

In the world of real estate, buyers and sellers are looking for opposite things when it comes to price. A seller, of course, wants to sell their home for the most amount of money possible. A buyer, on the other hand, wants to buy their home for as little money possible. The state of the market will determine whether prices are higher or lower, depending on demand. This is true of all real estate transactions, whether they be For Sale by Owner or listed with traditional real estate ages.

Within the real estate profession, an average market is considered to be one in which the average home takes about six months to sell. Thus, there will be roughly six months worth of homes on the market at any given time. When the time a home stays on the market is shorter than six months, this is considered to be a seller’s market. When the average home is on the market for longer than six months, it becomes a buyer’s market.

For FSBO sellers, then, timing of a sale can be critical. If you have the time to wait for a bit to put your home on the market and sales are in a slump, you might want to look for a time when sales begin to pick up before putting your house up for sale. Like every market, the real estate market has its ups and downs, even if things don’t look good at the moment things will eventually pick up again.

It is important to note, though, that even in a buyer’s market sellers can still make money. If you have a bit of time to wait and have a good property, you will be able to find the buyer who is willing to give you the price you’re looking for. For those in a must-sell situation, however, you might find yourself taking a bit of your profits in order to make the sale during a buyer’s market.

If you are a buyer looking for private real estate sales, you may want to do just the opposite. Wait on buying your home until sales start to slow down a little. In a buyer’s market, you have more control. Sellers are more likely to lower their prices, and you will be able to buy more house with less money.

There are some tricks to helping to identify a buyer’s market. For example, one rule of thumb is that winter is often a buyer’s market. Less people are moving during the winter, thus less people are going to be out looking to buy a new home. Less buyers means less sales, thus buyers have a bit more control. When spring comes the pendulum swings the other way as more buyers enter the market, tilting things more towards the seller. This is not always true, of course, but it is something to take into consideration.

Another thing to consider is that it is possible for their to be a buyer’s market in real estate agent run transactions, while the FSBO market becomes more of a seller’s market. In today’s tough economic times, with many banks in trouble, many people are foregoing traditional home buying routes and preferring to look at private home sales. When an owner is selling their own home, they are often more likely to be able to work out alternative financing in a market where mortgages can be difficult to come by.

Copyright (c) 2009 Wes Fernley

When I finished a listing appointment on Friday, I checked my voicemail. One of my clients had left me a message asking me to “look over a contract” that he had faxed me… “Very interesting”, I thought. What exactly did he mean, and why was someone giving him a contract to sign without involving me? It immediately raised my “suspicious” antenna. When I got back to the office, I saw a two page document titled “Contract to Buy and Sell Real Property” sitting on the fax machine. The words on the contract were actually in normal type size and could even be understood by most people, so it looked nothing like our standard 8-page, full of “legalese” North Carolina Offer to Purchase that we commonly use.

Looking at this new offer on the table, I was hopeful it was legitimate, but I had my doubts. I then saw that this person was offering full price, no closing costs, and could even close in a week! Given that this home had been on the market for a few months, I felt something was probably not right. What was it though…? It had to be in here…. Property description looks fine…. Purchase price paragraph looks fine…. No contingencies…. Seller has to convey clear title…. Purchaser may assign the contract. (OK. Not surprising since I’m sure this is an investor)…. Seller must maintain insurance until closing…. So far everything looks fine, and I’m almost at the end of the two pages. Wait… here is one last thing just above the place for the signatures… “Clause: Purchase of property is subject to existing financing.”

Did you catch it?

After calling my client and explaining to him what those “8 little words” meant, he was absolutely shocked. The buyer wanted my client to keep his mortgage in place even though he would no longer own the home. At no time did the investor explain to him what that “Clause” meant. If the buyer never paid off the mortgage, my client may never be able to get another mortgage. If the buyer was late on a payment or didn’t pay at all, my client’s credit would suffer.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there right now who are being taken advantage of by investors who are unscrupulous and smell blood in this real estate climate. Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against investors who legitimately help troubled sellers out of probable foreclosure. However, there are some sellers who are not in any financial trouble who are simply “For Sale By Owner” who may not catch any unusual language that a more seasoned buyer, or even a less-than-ethical agent, throws into the deal without thoroughly explaining the implications. Yes, it’s true that sometimes the transaction will go through without a single incident, and the seller wonders what value the real estate agent had in making the transaction go to closing. However, just as most planes can fly pretty much on autopilot these days, it is crucial to have a trained real estate agent as the pilot of your home sale. You need one who will be with you through the whole process and negotiate contracts; if, for nothing else, to make sure that, when unexpected turbulence arises, someone is on your side to make sure you don’t have a real estate crash landing resulting in financial disaster!

Realty advertising to put your house before as many certified buyers as imaginable in the fastest possible time costs a lot of time and money. Ultimately it benefits the FSBO. The following steps will help you navigate out of your current home and into a new one.

Realtor.com – Probably the biggest and most utilised internet site by house buyers looking for their next home. You will find that around eighty percent of house buyers will start out their research on the web. To get listed on Realtor.com your home must be on this web site the local MLS, that is where it all commences. If you’re either MLS or Realtor.com you’re trailing way behind your rivals.

Realtors – affordable, rebate, stripped-down service realty companies are accessible locally and on the internet. They can list your house on Realtor.com fees vary from a few hundred dollars up to a thousand dollars depending on the services they offer.

Recorded Messages – applied by some of the top Real Estate agents on the forefront of realty advertising. Good marketers realise that purchasers do not wish to talk to the broker they simply require info. Recorded messages accessible around the clock whenever they dial the number will give them the info and you will receive their name and number even if they don’t leave it.

Photographs and Tours – photographs taken from the inside and outside of your house can be added to Realtor.com, normally you are allowed eight photographs. Visual Tours applied simply by the best realtors will permit you up to fifty views. More photographs and visual tours will acquire you a greater positioning on the sites.

Newsprint marketing – Keep it uncomplicated 3-5 lines is all you need to get your message out there and to cause them to phone for more info. Get your advertisement to leap out. Promote your home solely on the realty sales day in your market perhaps on the Saturday or the Sunday.

Neighbours/colleagues – Drop off professionally made flyers with photographs, produce them with software such as MS Publisher, to every one of your neighbours and even your work place, put on windscreens in car parks. Realtor agents who make your visual tour will be able to e-mail it so that you can forward to acquaintances.

So you have decided to sell your property on your own?  Congratulations, and welcome to the real estate business!  Chances are you fall into one of three types of sellers that choose the “For Sale By Owner” (FBSO) route.  Your equity position is such that affording a professional is not an option. You had a bad experience with someone in the industry or you are a project person who wants to take on the responsibility of their own home sale because it could be fun.  Regardless of your reason, you need to know the five factors that contribute to a successful sale, because if you ignore any one of them, it will negatively impact your sale or could even prevent it.

Let’s start with the obvious one first – Price.  In any market (hot or cold) price is the most important factor when offering your home for sale.  Your price must first be attractive to potential buyer market.  Your price must be such that, if someone does decide to buy it a bank will give them a loan for that price.  You should base your price on how quickly you need to sell and compare not only recently sold properties but also currently available properties that you will be competing against.  Finally, your price must be in line with the other elements of the successful sale.

A factor that goes largely ignored is Terms. Terms describes a number of decisions you make in the sales process.  There are Terms that affect the buyer directly.  These include whether or not you are willing to pay closing costs.  Are you will to buy down the rate with discount point to make your home more affordable?  How soon can you vacate the property?  What sort of financing will you accept?  Can you owner finance?  However, there are also terms that speak to the buying market such as, when will the home be available for showing?  Will you cooperate with the Realtor public?  How much commission will you offer to a buyer’s agent?  Regardless of your decision be sure that the Terms you offer are in line with your Price and your competition.

Condition, is the third factor contributing to your successful sale.  Condition describes the state of the property at the time you are offering it for sale.  This factor includes more than whether or not the property is clean a presentable.  Has the property been updated to modern amenities?  Does the exterior favorably affect curb appeal?  Have there been any upgrades to the property?  What is the potential for future changes, such as, unfinished square footage?  Are there any repairs that need to be made?  Are the color selections neutral or particular?  Remember, that unless your property is in neutral move in condition, most likely, you will have to make an adjustment in price and possibly terms.

Next we have Location.  Location not only describes the physical location of your property but also what the Market is like in your area.  Are you in a heavily populated or rural area?  How does that affect activity in your area?  What’s activity like in your price range?  Are you the smallest or largest house in your area?  What business are opening or closing?  What are the schools like?  What is your properties proximity to amenities? (roads, shopping, services, etc.)  When placing your property for sale, be sure to evaluate your Location objectively and make adjustments accordingly.

The final factor contributing to a successful sale is Marketing.  How are you going to expose your property to as many potential buyers as possible?  Obviously the more buyers you reach the better chance you have for a faster sale and a higher price.  Do you know where most of the buyers are coming from?  Are there more in town or out of town buyers in your area?  What is your budget for marketing?  How will you market locally?  Will you advertise in the paper?  Will you advertise on the internet?  Will you use pay sites or free ad sites?  Be sure that you have a clear plan to market your property and make adjustments based on your results and desired outcome.  A little more time and money spent up front can pay dividends on the back end.

Did you know that when a home owner decides to list their home themselves as a FSBO (For Sale by Owner) they are just bombarded with information from real estate agents who can “help” them?

Within the first 10-14 days of listing their home FSBO home owners get more contact with real estate agents who want to list their home but very little contact with actual people who want to purchase their home.

With all of this contact how do you stand out?
In order to get a FSBO to remember you and a maximum of one other person you need to stand out. A goal to set with a FSBO is to make sure that if they decide to list, that you are one of two people that they invite for a listing appointment.

How can this be done?
You must stand out from your competition by being helpful but not too helpful. This may sound strange to many that the key is to be helpful without being too helpful but this is most certainly the truth. If you help a FSBO too much they will have no need for your paid service. They will not see enough benefit to paying you as you have already given them just about everything they need to be successful. You don’t want to teach them how to be you only the fact that you are valuable.

Let’s cover a few examples of being helpful that can work in your favor with a FSBO

1.Ask them how their open houses are going? – this is what many FSBO sellers feel sells their home and that it is the primary job of a real estate agent. The FSBO seller will know that you care how they are doing and that you are helpful.

2.Ask them how many people they got into their open house? – Again you want to know how they are doing. If they are getting lots of people through you want to ask them what that means. If they are getting too few through (the more likely scenario) you need to let them know that you get 50 people through yours by using classified ads with very specific wording just don’t get them the wording

3. Ask them if they know the top 10 mistakes that FSBO sellers make that cost them money? – This will lead you to being able to give them a report that you have on FSBO sellers and the mistakes that are made.

When you are helpful to FSBO’s and actually take the time to ask them how they are doing and what is going on they will remember you provided that you have a powerful marketing message that they can remember. Through all of your contact with a FSBO make sure that you aren’t too helpful because at the end of the day you need to get paid for the help that you provide.

In any market there is anywhere between 8-14% of a market where home owners decide that they would like to sell their homes themselves instead of hiring a real estate professional. The opportunity lies in the fact that over 80% of these would be sellers select a real estate agent to assist them after they realize it isn’t as easy as just throwing a sign in the yard and putting their house on the Internet.

One has to remember though that FSBO sellers are not children that you can just tell what to do. One has to get the FSBO to realize that it is in their best interest, not yours, to list their home with you and that you can actually help them get more for them home then they would if they chose to do the entire process by themselves.

So just how do you go about doing this?

There are a few methods that you can take to get a FSBO to know about you and your services while standing out from your competition. Getting FSBO sellers to list is a competitive market but one that you can easily eliminate 90% or more of your competition within a very short amount of time.

Your first contact with the FSBO

In the very first contact with a FSBO you should not be trying to sell them anything (nothing about your services). In fact what you need to find out in very first phone call is if they are a serious seller or not. Many FSBO sellers are in fact just testing the market at a price that they can’t hope to get. Many aren’t willing to work with any real estate agents at all.

In your very first phone call with a FSBO you need to determine the following:

1. Are they serious about selling?
2. Do they absolutely have to move?
3. Are they willing to cooperate with real estate agents who bring them a buyer?

A FSBO who is unwilling to offer a commission to a real estate agent who brings them a buyer is one that is not worth pursuing. If they are adamant that they are not going to offer any commission to a real estate agent who brings them a well qualified buyer they are someone who is not serious about selling their home and a lead that is not worth pursuing.

You need to ask them multiple questions to find out why they aren’t willing to offer a commission and if they end result is that they just won’t be “paying” anyone this is a FSBO owner who is not serious about selling their home and one that is not worth pursuing.

For owners like this I recommend thanking them for their time and no additional contact as their likelihood of ever listing with a real estate agent is extremely slim.

As we move further into economic turmoil, many home owners are opting to sell now before house prices fall even further. Since finances are generally pretty tight, choosing to sell house by owner is a smart, money saving move. This article provides you with info on how to sell your own house without a realtor, and shows you where you can download a complete, recession-proof sales plan.

First Things First – Your Pricing Strategy

There was once a time (pre-2008) when all you had to do to sell your house fast was to set a competitive price. With the onset of the economic meltdown this is no longer an effective strategy. Instead you should focus on setting a low asking price, advertising heavily as “under market value”, which will generate a massive spike in hot traffic leading to frenzied buyer competition, thus running up the price.

Presenting A High Quality Home

One of the most overlooked aspects of selling a house in a down market is presentation. I’m not just talking about cleaning the place up, but proactively decorating the house in a way that screams “BUY ME”! This means:

- Clearing out clutter to create an open, airy, and customizable home for the buyer.

- Replacing ugly light fittings and tap faucets.

- Repairing or replacing cracked tiles and windows.

- Making sure the outside areas are also presented in a fashionable manner.

You’ll be extremely surprised at just how much perceived value you can add to your home by doing the things listed here.

Portraying Financial Confidence

The current property market is absolutely full of buyers who know that they are in a powerful position. They automatically assume that you’re desperate, and will have no quarrels about significantly undercutting your asking price if you show any kind of financial strain. Try to subtly imply that you own many properties, or that you’re in a better financial position than you might really be in.

So you want to sell house by owner, but you’re a little unsure if you’re up to it. Don’t worry, even if you’ve got no experience selling your own house, you can still make a good sale if you follow a tried and tested approach. This article provides you with a few methods you can use to speed up your sale, and shows you where to download a comprehensive sales strategy.

Using The Internet For Free Advertisement

There are literally thousands of places on the internet that allow you to advertise for free. Many of these sites will let you upload photos, write your own sales copy, and expose your property to millions of house hunters. However, you need to make sure to write a good campaign. This can be tricky if you don’t have any marketing experience.

Effective Sales Copy And Headlines

As far as your actual written sales copy goes, it shouldn’t be too complicated. Stick to the hard facts about why your property is so great. Make good use of listing out the most positive aspects in bullet point form if possible. As for the headline, this is the MOST important part of any advertisement. Since we’re currently in a market where the buyer has the most leverage in a sale, focus on what THEY want to hear. For example:

- “Below market value”

- “Move your family in today”

- “Lowest price in history, make 200% profit in 3 years”

Everyone knows that houses have lost a lot in value, so you shouldn’t try to pretend that your house is worth more than market value. Choose a reasonably inexpensive price and DON’T use the phrase “negotiable”. In this market it will only lead people to undercut your asking price.

Stick To A Proven, Systematic Approach

You can ask a realtor for For-Sale-By-Owner advice, though it will probably cost you an arm and a leg. The internet is a fantastic source of information regarding these things. Find a sales strategy and stick to it. Be proactive and invest some good energy into your sale.